Comparison Of Darley And Latane's Five-Stage Decision Model

Ever since human race started, there was always a need for helping each other to survive. The behavior to help each other is motivated by two main reasons. Some people are empathetic and are motivated to help others to relieve the sufferings without any reward or recognition. Such kind of helping behavior is altruistic in nature. On the other hand, there are many people who are motivated to offer help with the expectation of reward or personal gain. Irrespective of the motivation behind, people or bystander comes forward to help in case of an emergency situation. According to Darley & Latane`, a bystander would pass through a 5-stage decision model for before actually helping. The 5-stage decision model of helping are noticing the situation, …show more content…
For example, a child gets hurt while playing in the park and bleeding. This situation needs prompt response with help. Such a situation needs a short-term commitment and less effort. Long-term helping means when help provided is committed for a long period of time and it usually requires more effort and resource.
An example of applying the 5-stage model of helping in emergencies to long-term helping is about Harriet Tubman who was born as a black slave and was known in history as the conductor of the ‘Underground Railroad’ which was used as a means to help the slaves from the South to escape to the Northern states or Canada. The first stage is noticing the situation. Harriet Tubman was herself a slave and could understand the condition of the other slaves which was very bad and they were timid and helpless. The next stage is labelling the situation as an emergency. Harriet Tubman found out that her master was about to sell her as a slave to get money to pay the debt. It was then she worked hard to find out a way to escape being sold to someone as a slave. During that time she also felt the black slaves were treated so badly by their masters and the situation was becoming